Iran executes nine convicted ISIL fighters

The men had been held since their arrest in 2018 and found guilty of plotting attacks, officials say.

Iran has executed nine members of the ISIL (ISIS) armed group convicted of plotting attacks against civilians.

The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan News Agency announced the executions on Tuesday, reporting that the men had been arrested in 2018 amid a clash with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in the country’s restive west that had killed many.

“The death sentences of nine members of the terrorist group were carried out after confirmation by Iran’s Supreme Court,” the news outlet reported, adding that the men “had planned to carry out terrorist attacks against civilians in Iran”.

The men were charged with waging war against God through armed rebellion, terrorism and illegal possession of military weapons, according to the report.

Officials said a cache of weapons was recovered from the group’s base after they were arrested.

“This terrorist cell intended to infiltrate Iran and conduct simultaneous attacks in border and central cities,” IRGC ground forces commander General Mohammad Pakpour said at the time, according to the AFP news agency.

He added that three Iranian soldiers were killed in the operation as a number of the ISIL fighters detonated suicide vests.

In January last year, ISIL claimed responsibility for two bombings targeting a memorial for assassinated Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in the city of Kerman, in which more than 90 people were killed.

At least 18 people were killed in an attack claimed by the group on Iran’s parliament and a mausoleum in 2017.

Iran regularly announces arrests of alleged ISIL fighters. On Sunday, police said they had arrested 13 suspected members in raids across the country.

Last month, ISIL claimed responsibility for an attack on the Syrian army, in the group’s first strike on government forces since the fall of Bashar al-Assad.

Iran executed at least 972 people last year, the second-highest number in the world last year, save for China, according to the human rights group Amnesty International.